Out of Room

In my brain, that is. I feel like I only have the capacity to focus on one big thing at a time, and anything competing for attention sort of waits in the wings hounding me until I plan it out. It's exhausting.

On deck for the next few weeks: groundbreaking event, closing on the house (hopefully), leaving town for 8 days, moving, getting my townhouse back on the market. Add a Saturday Easter Egg Hunt train ride in there, and Easter itself.

I have a full-time house sitter coming while we're gone, so I can't leave the place a mess even though we have a 5:45 AM flight. The old building on our groundbreaking lot JUST came down this week, so until Thursday I thought I might have to change everything (catering, the Mayor's invite, etc.) And I just hired someone in my department who starts the day before I leave, so I need to plan his schedule before I go. I also need to arrange for the carpet people to get in and take measurements so the carpet can be replaced in the new house while we're out of town, assuming we close on time. Part of what's eating me is that I can't do much right now. Every thing needs to happen on its own timeline.

Last week I dreamed that I forgot to invite Felix's friends to his birthday party (I'll start planning that after we move) and also that I quit my job! I was freaking out in my dream, trying to remember why I had put in my two weeks' notice and trying to find my boss to tell her I wanted to stay. I definitely feel like I'm going to miss some big detail eventually.

On top of all this, I feel like I should be doing something in terms of adoption networking, but that has been slow going. A match before we move would mean financial chaos, so I haven't been pushing too hard just in case (any match so soon would be a miracle, but you never know...) This week I finally took pictures of my profile book and cropped them all the same size (on a computer so slow, it shows a progress bar for cropping) so they can go into a PDF in case my book ever needs to be shared electronically. I wish Shutter.fly offered hi-res digital versions of projects.

Last night I took Felix to his first movie in a theater. He did great, and talked to the girl next to us as though they were longtime friends. When he heard other kids saying bye to each other when the movie was over, he thought it meant he should also say bye to everyone, so he did. It was pretty cute.

Previews - it took him a few minutes to get used to the giant screen.

What's New?

I think most people stay up to date via Facebook or online groups, but in case you haven't heard, I recently finished my home study to adopt #2! The process went more quickly this time because the agency had a bunch of my info on hand, and I also received a big discount for being a returning family.

I will be using my attorney and networking on my own again. If I'm not matched within a year, I plan to become more aggressive in my search, possibly using a national agency. As the stigma associated with single motherhood continues to dissipate, adoption rates drop. My attorney said, "The matches are out there. You just have to work for them." I'm paying for an online profile at www.adoptimist.com/chryssa and I also have an 800 number this time around.

He is so proud of our profile book.

And because I think major life changes should come in pairs, we finally had an offer accepted on a house yesterday! It was the fourth house I made an offer on this year. The first two received 4 and 6 offers respectively and I was outbid, and the third house was owned by a military family who couldn't move until May. I didn't want to wait that long so they rejected my offer. On the fourth house, I decided to include a personal letter along with a photo of myself to help my case. (After putting together a whole profile book, the letter was a cinch.) The deadline was Friday at noon and the agent reported they had 4 offers total and would decide by 5 PM. Well, my agent's phone rang at 12:05 and they said the seller loved my letter and was accepting my offer as written. Woo hoo! I am super excited because this house has everything I was looking for. I'm making no concessions and probably won't need to do anything before we move in. I'm a little gun shy after last year, but trying to stay optimistic that the inspection and closing phases will go smoothly.

Come on baby, no whammies!

And because I think the best time to move is right after a vacation, that's the plan so far. In December I had to pick some dates and buy tickets for Felix and I to visit the grandparents. We will take 6 flights in 8 days and stop in a total of 4 cities/towns. I've been putting together a light schedule of activities for Felix and the grandparents to enjoy together - library story time, indoor swimming, etc. So he can stay busy without them having to walk a lot. Felix is VERY excited about going on an airplane and asks daily to ride on one. When I tell him "later, next month", he hangs his head a little and says, "Okaaaaay."

Felix with one of his Great Grandmas on the right at 5 months - this is one spread in our book.

Overall I'm feeling so fortunate right now with all our hopeful news, and supportive friends and family who are genuinely excited for us.